THE AU STEAL ASIAN JOURNAL 01 PHARMACY. 
225 
ought not to hare had a prosecution ordered against him, or, that prosecution 
having been decided upon, he was entitled, if innocent, to be fully acquitted by 
a jury of his countrymen. As the case now stands, he has been first accused, 
and then acquitted, not by the verdict of a jury chosen from the people, but by 
the Attorney-General.” 
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Mr. Alexander Webster, son of Mr. Alexander Webster, sen., of Launceston, 
has passed a successful examination as a chemist before the Medical Board, 
Hobart. Mr. Webster, who was educated at the Church Grammar School, is 
now serving his indentures with Messrs. L. Fairthorne and Son, chemists, of 
•St. John-street. 
Few persons who visited the Launceston General Hospital two years ago 
would recognise it in the hospital of to-day, so great have been the improve- 
ments which have recently been effected. The new drainage is on the most 
modern and improved principle, the yards have been raised, graded, and the 
surface drained, and the interior arrangements have been vastly improved. In 
1884 a sum of £2000 was voted by the Legislature for hospital improvements, 
and in 1885 a further sum of £5000. It is estimated that the whole of these 
two votes will be absorbed by the improvements which have already been 
■carried out and those at present in progress, and when these are 
•completed Launceston will possess an institution of which it will have 
every reason to feel proud — that is to say if it does not fall a victim to 
the fiery element, which it was in some little danger of doing the other day as 
the result of a foul chimney. Fortunately Mr. Superintendent Croft and his men 
-of the Launceston Fire Brigade were on the spot in time, and subdued the flames 
ere the building could suffer any damage. The returns for the month of May, as 
compared with the corresponding month last year, show the strength of the 
Hospital on 1st May, 1886, was 54 males, 19 females ; May, 1885, 46 males, 25 
females. Admitted during May, 1886, 61 males, 17 females ; May, 1885, 40 
males, 17 females. Total for 1886, 115 males, 36 females ; for 1885, 86 males, 
42 females. Discharged during May, 1886, 60 males, 16 females ; May, 1885, 
32 males, 13 females. Died during May, 1886, 5 males, 2 females ; during May, 
1885, 2 males, 3 females. Remaining on 1st June, 49 males, 19 females, as 
against 52 males, 26 females on 1st June, 1885. The total number of new out- 
patients during May, 1886, was 54, as compared with w 32 for the same month last 
year. 
The chemists of Launceston have unanimously agreed to close their respective 
•establishments from 1.30 to 6 p.m. on Sundays, opening from 6 to 9. In this 
move they have the entire sympathy of the public, who will in no way be 
inconvenienced, as in cases of urgency a chemist can always be found to 
dispense the necessary medicines. The only thing to be wondered at is that 
they should not have taken this step long ago. 
Joseph Turner, a hawker, was convicted and sentenced to death at the 
Supreme Court, Hobart, on Wednesday, 19th May, on a charge of attempting 
to poison his wife at New Norfolk. The evidence showed that he had 
abstracted some pills perscribed for her by her medical attendant, and substi- 
tuted pills containing strychnine, from the t effects of which, however, she 
recovered. 
At an Executive meeting, held on 31st May, the sentence of death against 
Joseph Turner, for attempted poisoning, was commuted to imprisonment for life. 
